Fun Korean Stuff: Dyeing Your Fingernails With Garden Balsam 봉숭아

3.If you can’t find the flowers, you can buy the powder instead (봉숭아 묻들이기).

For the first week the orange color will be a bit too strong and look like nicotine stains, also your fingers will be stained for about two weeks.

This is two weeks later. You'll notice that there are no longer any stains on my fingers and that the color on my nails has faded nicely. The only problem is that the color is not even. My pointer fingernail is much lighter than my pinky.

Why:

1.In the olden days it was used to ward off evil spirits.

2. In China it was used as a nail polish, I'm guessing it was the same in Korea as well.

3.A cute love tradition – if the orange color remains by the first snowfall then you will marry your true love.

4.It’s pretty.

5These days it’s done as a way of preserving tradition.Koreans are big on that and it’s cool.

When:

1. In Korea, the flowers and leaves can be used after the heavy summer rains, mid to late
August.

2.The flowers and leaves can be frozen and used year round.

How:

1.Pick the flowers and leaves off the plant. You will need one handful for one hand.

2.Crush them.I used the bottom of a rolling pin and a bowl for mixing face masks.

3.Apply the mixture to your fingernails or toenails, wrap in plastic, and tie with string or tape.(I didn’t use string and the plastic kept on falling off while I was sleeping cause I move around a lot). The mixture will go onto your fingers as well. No worries, it'll wash off in about two weeks.

4.Sleep, as in go to bed. kkkkk

5.When you wake up, remove plastic and wash the mixture off.

6.Apply a clear coat of nail polish to make it look brighter.

Other Uses for Garden Balsam:

1.You can use the mixture to make dyes for clothes.

2.In the olden days, Koreans would plant them around their homes to ward off bad spirits ie.
Cholera, and other diseases.

Wow tats interesting! We have a similar thing done in India with the henna plant leaves. Its called Mehendi. Its main healing effect is cooling the body, but now a days its more of a temporary body art in India;a very popular one.Donno if u know abt it already!https://www.msu.edu/~kimjeon2/ezhil/Marudhani/mehndiskinart/History.htmhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mehndi

Psycred, Thank you so much for answering my questions. I have a lot of questions about a lot of things in Korea but no one to ask. Most of my Korean friends work full-time or don't speak Korean well. My Korean is limited though I am working on it.^^I'm glad you enjoyed reading this post. I suggest trying around bed time when your daughter is really sleepy.The color on my nails is half-way finished.BTW - do only children dye their fingernails? Is it mainly a children's thing?^.^

This blog is great. Fauna, may I reference this blog for an article about this practice of "orange fingertips"? May I use a picture or two? It's for Gwangju News magazine, a free English magazine in Korea. Please let me know. Thanks, -Stephen

Hi Stephen, I am not sure how to reply back to you other than here on the blog. Yes, feel free to use the pictures as long as you reference everything properly. If there is an online version of the magazine, send me a link with your article in it. I'd like to see what you have to say about "orange fingertips". :)

Hi Fauna, the article was published in the June edition of Gwangju News magazine, and here is a link to the online version:

http://www.gwangjunewsgic.com/online/orange-fingertips/

I am actually looking for more "myths" and superstitious Korean stuff for this series. I've covered almost 20 of them so far (including fan death, dream interpretations, test superstitions, etc.). Always looking for more ideas. Thanks for the assist on this one.

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